1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



51 



PREFERENCE FOR THE EIGHT-FRAME HIVE. 



In saying this I know I am going contrary to the opinion of 

 some of our leading bee-keepers. Among them are those 

 sterling, experienced, practical and successful honey-pro- 

 ducers — the Dadants. They are so nearly right always, and I 

 have such a high regard for their opinions, that I join issue 

 with them this time with reluctance. It is true that we are 

 not so far apart as we might be, as they believe in a hive big 

 on the ground, and I believe in one big up in the air. I think, 

 for all practical purposes that a modification of an eight-frame 

 Langstroth hive cannot be improved upon in the production 

 of comb honey. This hive furnishes plenty of room for the 

 queen, enables the bees to conserve the heat to the best ad- 

 vantage, and does away with all of the troi;ble about getting 

 the bees to enter the supers. It also does away with the ne- 

 cessity of contracting the brood-chamber at any time, and 

 this saves the expense of division-boards and other traps for 

 contracting. The fewer loose parts there are about a bee- 

 hive, the better it is for me. 



Having settled on the size of the hive, or rather of the 

 the brood-chamber, the next question is how it should be 

 made. 



THREE METHODS OF PUTTING HIVES TOGETHER 



have prevailed since I began to have any knowledge of api- 

 culture. The corners of the old Simplicity hive were fitted 

 together with a miter .joint, but in the last few years 

 there has been a great rage for the so-called "dovetailed" 

 method of joining the corners. There were some serious 

 objections to the mitered joints of the Simplicity hive, but as 

 but few of them are now in use, it is not worth while to spend 

 the time to name them. 



I have been led to wonder a great many times why the 

 so-called dovetailed method has had such a run, as there seems 

 to be some serious objections to it. In the first place, it has 

 been wrongly named, for it is not dovetailed at all. If it 

 really had a dovetailed joint, then there might be that much 

 said in its favor, but it has not. 



A dovetailed joint has a flaring tenon like a bird's tail, 

 and a mortise into which the dovetail fits tightly. When 

 such a joint is once in place it could not pull apart very well 

 if it did not have a nail in it, as may be seen by examining 

 the illustration. 



A True Dovetailed Joint. 



The joint used in this hive is, properly speaking, nothing 

 but a mortise and tenon joint, and as such has but little to 

 recommend it. There is a wide difference between this joint, 

 •as anyone can clearly see by referring again to the illustration. 

 I am at a loss to know why it was ever called a dovetailed 

 joint, for that is not the way a dove's tail is made. One of the 

 funny things about it all is that the people who made these 

 hives refer to the projections as "tenons" and never as dove- 

 tails. In my opinion it has nothing about it which renders it 

 superior to the ordinary halved joint, as it adds neither 

 strength nor lightness, and seems to have some objectionable 

 ■features, as suggested above. 



Tfie "Dovetailed" Hive, 



First, it is very much harder to set the hives up square, 

 -and one has to be very careful in nailing them, or when he 

 has finished he will find them very much out of shape. Then, 

 •again, if one of the boards shrinks a little more than the other, it 



will be found hard to make the tenons fit the mortises; and, if 

 driven in, one of the boards is very apt to split. If it does 

 not do so at the time of making them up, the continued pres- 

 sure is apt to cause them to split later on. Then, if not kept 

 well painted, these numerous cracks furnish an excellent op- 

 portunity for the rain to beat in and rot out the^joints in a 

 short time. I fail to see where this joint has a single advan- 

 tage over the halved joint, except in name. 



Since not a single objection that I have offered can be 

 made against the halved joint, I am at a loss to know why 

 any one should prefer the other. 



A HALVED JOINT 



can be put together with very much less trouble, and there is 

 but one crack for water to beat in. 



Now I want to say before I go any further, that I am not 

 making war on any manufacturer of hives, for they all make 

 the so-called dovetailed hive, and any of them can make a 

 halved joint, if they desire to do so. I am well aware 

 that popular opinion will be against me, but I 

 am also aware that we get into the habit of 

 taking things for granted and of moving along in ruts. We 

 follow fads as the women do fashions. Many times we are 

 held back from expressing an opinion by the idea that we will 

 get a man's ill-will if we offer any objections to his wares, but 

 to indulge this feeling often results in an injury to the indus- 

 try we represent. 



I may be permitted to say just here that it is my purpose to 

 eliminate the personal idea entirely from my mind while I 

 am writing these articles. It is not persons— aU bee-keepers 

 are my friends— but things that I am to discuss. 



I wish these were all the objections I had to this hive, but 

 they are not, Mr. Hutchinson says in his book: "Beveled joints, 

 either at the corners of hives or between the stories, are being 

 discarded so rapidly for the plain, square joint that it is almost 

 a waste of space to condemn." This may be all right as to the 

 corners, but I am not so sure of it as to the joints between the 

 parts of the hive. I, for one, could never make up my mind 

 to use a hive with a perfectly square joint between the parts, 

 and there are a great many people scattered through this 

 "wild and woolly West" who are inclined to agree with me. 



I not only object to the square joints, but 



THE HOFFMAN FRAMES 



with their sharp edges and follower are equally as objection- 

 able. Others may be able to content themselves with being 

 forced to pull the frames apart every time they want to take 

 one out, but for me, give me a hive in which the frames hang 

 without touching each other, and out of which any one of 

 them can be taken without first pulling — I say "pulling," ad- 

 visedly — them apart. I do not object to self-spacing frames, 

 or rather to having some kind of a device by which the frames 

 can be accurately spaced, but I do object to the frames touch- 

 ing each other in order to accomplish this. 



St. Joseph, Mo. 

 (To be continued.) 



Rearing Brood on Sugar Syrup. 



BY J. W. SOnTHWOOD. 



On page 681 (1894), J. E. B. says: 



"An old bee-keeper here tells me that bees cannot rear 

 brood on sugar syrup, but must have honey to be fed on. Is 

 this true? I have been unable to find anything touching this 

 point in the bee books or papers." 



The above questien is then answered as follows by Dr. 

 Miller: 



"I don't know that I can give a categorical answer, only 

 that in hundreds of cases bees have wintered on sugar syrup 

 and commenced breeding in the spring so far as yet heard 

 from, just the same as if they had honey." 



I think I am safe in saying I can give a positive answer 

 that bees can rear brood on sugar syrup. In August, 1892, 

 a neighbor proposed to give me the bees if I would help him 

 cut a bee-tree he had found on his place — he to have the 

 honey. I accepted, as they were real nice hybrids and a 

 small tree. I transferred the combs containing brood and 

 what other nice, straight comb there was, it being an after- 

 swarm, and had but enough to fill five frames. 



A few days afterward, another man said he had hived a 

 swarm in a large nail-keg, that the bees had filled it full, 

 and he did not know how to get it out, and said if I would 

 help get the honey out I might have the bees. I did so, and 

 got about 50 pounds of good honey in nice condition, and 

 comb enough to fill six frames. 



I moved the bees home, and fed each a little, as it was so 



